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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Carolyn J. Rose is the author of 11 novels including A Place of Forgetting, a story about love, war, betrayal, and Thoreau, set in 1966. A cozy mystery, No Substitute for Murder, is due out soon. I convinced her that appearing here on Straight From Hel was a good way to launch her new book.

Carolyn grew up in New York’s Catskill Mountains, graduated from the University of Arizona, logged two years in Arkansas with Volunteers in Service to America, and spent 25 years as a television news researcher, writer, producer, and assignment editor in Arkansas, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. Now getting her quota of stress as a substitute teacher, she lives in Vancouver, Washington, and founded the Vancouver Writers’ Mixers. Her hobbies are reading, gardening, and not cooking.

The Etiquette of Eavesdropping

Carolyn J. Rose

As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for unique characters with distinct voices, characters using the language in new and different ways, bending, folding and mutilating it into fresh and interesting similes and metaphors.

Fortunately for me, potential characters are everywhere—in grocery stores and at the mall, in the rec center pool and walking in my neighborhood. They’re where I work, in restaurants and coffee shops, at highway rest stops and in movie theaters.

More fortunately, many of those characters are having conversations—face-to-face, or on phones. Often—and perhaps this is a sign of our social networking age—they make almost no attempt to keep those conversations private. There’s no turning aside, no hunching over, no cupping hands to contain their voices.

Unless I walk away, it’s almost impossible not to hear at least part of their conversations. And because I’m always looking for raw material, I don’t want to abandon a fresh mine of characterization.

That’s why I’ve decided to set aside the “it’s rude to eavesdrop” rule laid down by my grandmother.

But, in the interests of being at least a little subtle, and not drawing the wrath of eavesdroppees (let’s pretend that’s a word, okay?), I established a few Okay and Not Okay guidelines.

Okay
*Jotting notes to yourself if you can successfully pretend you’re making a grocery or to-do list
*Cuing friends with your eyes or a discreet thumb gesture so they can help you remember
*Dialing your answering machine and quietly leaving the information in a message
*Racing to the restroom and scrawling details on a paper towel (Note, a look of urgent desperation gives this verisimilitude, but as more restrooms go to those hot air blasters, towels are harder to find)

Not Okay
*Making eye contact
*Commenting on their conversation
*Asking if they could repeat something you didn’t quite hear
*Being obvious about taking notes, texting, or tweeting
*Pulling out a recording device and pointing it in their direction
*Calling a friend and loudly proclaiming “you’ll never guess what I’m listening to”

Some of the most amazing things I’ve overheard include:
I’m taking my truck and those quaaludes. That’s all I need.
And then the chicken attacked.
The DNA didn’t match either of us.
The safe is hidden behind the baseboard in the corner of . . .
An unregistered gun, two cans of beef stew, and . . .
And there I was, halfway to Seattle without my underwear.

If you’ve heard anything interesting or have some rules about eavesdropping that you’d like to share, please leave a comment. We’ll put your name into the drawing for a copy of A Place of Forgetting.

The other reason Carolyn draws such vivid characters is that people tend to open up to her. I've been in line with her at the supermarket, half-listening to a conversation between her and the female checker. Suddenly I hear "And I'm leaving the S*** of a B**** in the morning and see her comforting the young woman who is in tears and has abandoned any pretense of scanning the goods. Behind us, other shoppers are glancing at their watches, rolling their eyes and clearing their throats but my wife, show emanates compassion is hugging the distraught woman and handing her a series of Kleenexes. I would say she's spot on about the value of writer's eavesdropping though. I've been known to get up from a table in a restaurant and wander slowly to the men's room to better hear a bickering couple two tables over.

Christopher - that reminds me a little of Hunter Thompson and what I think were giant bats.

And Stephen - I agree - although once or twice I've had a stranger butt in and it worked out well. Once, waiting for a bus in New York City, a friend and I were talking about cookies and a woman waiting a few feet away broke in and mentioned knowing about an incredible bakery along the bus route. We got off to check out her recommendation, bought 2 dozen, and ate them before the day was over. Yum.

Oooh. Tampa would be nice right now. It's a frosty morning here in Vancouver, WA, and there's no one up yet so there's no one to eavesdrop on. But, I'm planning to hit the thrift stores later and those should be rich mines of material.

Congratulations Carolyn. You also make me laugh, with that "asking the person to repeat" and "no underwear" thingy. I actually prefer to read newspapers to get inspiration. But your advice is great. I may give it a try. Start listening to conversations now.

Angel Sometimes by Helen Ginger

Angel Sometimes

Helen Ginger

Helen is the author of five books: three non-fiction, a short story anthology and a contemporary fiction, Angel Sometimes. She maintains an informational and interactive blog for writers and a weekly e-newsletter that has been going out to subscribers around the globe for thirteen years. She is an owner-partner and Women’s Marketing Director for Legends In Our Own Minds®, which specializes in creative networking opportunities for companies and groups.